A woman and her mother are now facing felony charges for allegedly stealing a dog from a 73-year-old man walking in Long Beach, according to authorities.
Erika Juarez Trujillo and Patricia Juarez are accused of knocking the man to the ground and prying Chewie, a 3-year-old Maltese-Yorkie, from his arms before driving away.
They’re each charged with second-degree robbery and elder abuse, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office said Thursday.
Trujillo, 24, and Juarez, 50, both pleaded not guilty yesterday, prosecutors said.
Long Beach police said they solved the case when they discovered security camera footage that caught the license plate of the car involved in the April 5 robbery.
When detectives served a search warrant at a home linked to the license plate, they found Chewie in a box with a blanket and arrested the two women, police said.
Last month, police reunited Chewie with Ana Licea, the stepdaughter of the man who was robbed.
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Licea told the Post the robbers approached her stepdad and said, “What a cute dog you have,” before pushing him to the ground and driving away.
“He was devastated, he felt so bad and felt a lot of guilt,” Licea said. “… He felt so helpless in the whole situation, and he couldn’t do much about it.”